Wednesday, April 2, 2014Scientists Link Selfies To Narcissism, Addiction & Mental Illness
The growing trend of taking smartphone selfies is linked to mental health conditions that focus on a person's obsession with looks.

According to psychiatrist Dr. David Veal: "Two out of three of all the patients who come to see me with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the rise of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly take and post selfies on social media sites."

"Cognitive behavioural therapy is used to help a patient to recognise the reasons for his or her compulsive behaviour and then to learn how to moderate it", he told the Sunday Mirror.

The 19-year-old lost nearly 30 pounds, dropped out of school and did not leave the house for six months in his quest to get the right picture. He would take 10 pictures immediately after waking up. Frustrated at his attempts to take the one image he wanted, Bowman eventually tried to take his own life by overdosing, but was saved by his mom.

"I was constantly in search of taking the perfect selfie and when I realized I couldn't, I wanted to die. I lost my friends, my education, my health and almost my life", he told The Mirror.

The teenager is believed to be the UK's first selfie addict and has had therapy to treat his technology addiction as well as OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Part of his treatment at the Maudsley Hospital in London included taking away his iPhone for intervals of 10 minutes, which increased to 30 minutes and then an hour. "It was excruciating to begin with but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to go on living", he told the Sunday Mirror.

Public health officials in the UK announced that addiction to social media such as Facebook and Twitter is an illness and more than 100 patients sought treatment every year.

"Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-indulgence or attention-seeking social dependence that raises the damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't spectre of either narcissism or very low self-esteem", said Pamela Rutledge in Psychology Today.

The big problem with the rise of digital narcissism is that it puts enormous pressure on people to achieve unfeasible goals, without making them hungrier. Wanting to be Beyonc&eacute;, Jay Z or a model is hard enough already, but when you are not prepared to work hard to achieve it, you are better off just lowering your aspirations. Few things are more self-destructive than a combination of high entitlement and a lazy work ethic.

Ultimately, online manifestations of narcissism may be little more than a self-presentational strategy to compensate for a very low and fragile self-esteem. Yet when these efforts are reinforced and rewarded by others, they perpetuate the distortion of reality and consolidate narcissistic delusions.

The addiction to selfies has also alarmed health professionals in Thailand. "To pay close attention to published photos, controlling who sees or who likes or comments them, hoping to reach the greatest number of likes is a symptom that 'selfies' are causing problems", said Panpimol Wipulakorn, of the Thai Mental Health Department.

The doctor believed that behaviours could generate brain problems in the future, especially those related to lack of confidence.

The word "selfie" was elected "Word of the Year 2013" by the Oxford English Dictionary and is defined as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."

3. The Car Selfie AKA The Seatbelt Selfie
(You LITERALLY got in the car and thought, I look so good today, I better let everyone know before I put this thing in drive and head to my shift at the Olive Garden.)

Guilty of the gym selfie and the giant where selfie..on the regular..never kids pets and only mild squalor

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04-05-2014, 08:23 PM

maniclion

I take a selfie and immediately delete it when the voices start saying "NO THEY'll LAUGH AT YOU!!!" For some reason they all sound like Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken.

04-05-2014, 08:37 PM

dogsoldier

I took a selfie once. Sent it to 80 year old mother thinking she would like a picture of her only son. She sent it back saying "How do I delete this damn picture off my phone? It is scaring the cat."

04-06-2014, 04:45 AM

Zaphod

I did an ambien selfie once while on a motorcycle trip. But only after I had arrived at my destination and was at the motel and sitting in a nice hot bath. I looked like I was in the middle of having a fatal aneurism. It was funny so I put it up on facebook until my wife said something about it.

04-06-2014, 04:52 AM

dave 236

Quote:

Originally Posted by KelJu

I didn't see it that way. I see it more as her kid is leaning his head against the wall saying to himself, "OMFG, this is so humiliating. My my mom is a dumb whore!"

Yeah. He's thinking, " shit, i know this is gonna come back one day and bite ME in the ass" .

04-06-2014, 05:39 AM

theCaptn'

Lol I selfie all the time. Favourite is the 'sneaky nut', send it to my fianc? she love them. If I ever hurt her she's going to fuck me over big time :nono:

04-06-2014, 07:22 AM

heavyiron

Dare I ask, what is a sneaky nut selfie?

04-06-2014, 07:33 AM

cube789

& why dont we have the privilege of seeing these sneaky nut selfies :(